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Broken plastic parts on Xenon headlights

Ryan / Metalman / anyone else that can help.....

My xenon headlights still work but the two plastic connectors (inside the headlight assembly) broke. Thus, the bulbs are loose inside the headlight casing. Can I just the plastic parts or did I have to buy entire new headlight assemblies? Jaguar service says I must replace the entire assemblies...$1200 each. My headlights are aiming all over the place....If I can replace the plastic parts cheaply, can someone please please send me whatever pdf or instructions you got to fix the problem.

A search reveals the bad news

consensus is that a 5 cent plastic part inside the housing breaks and Jaguar only sells a complete headlight as a fix.

There is a suggestion that you can remove the light, bake for ten minutes at 275F (check the post for the actual temperature, the suggestion is to preheat an oven, then shut it off and stick the headlight in for ten minutes to soften the adhesive), pull the housing apart, epoxy the broken part, re-bake and reglue, finishing off with silicone sealer.

The really frustrating part is how easily the adjuster is broken. Another ridiculous problem this car suffers from.

Fixing broken light adjusters

well guys, I emailed Hella and they do not sell just the plastic adjusters. I called Jaguar parts, and they do not have just the adjusters. So I had to do it myself. I AM NOT A MECHANIC NOR HAVE I EVER WORKED ON CARS, SO THIS IS FROM A GUY THAT HAS A LITTLE EAGERNESS AND A DESIRE TO "DO IT MYSELF" ATTITUDE. Knowing I had to remove the front bumper cover, I read up on multiple forums. I got the bumper removed. REMOVING THE BUMPER COVER: It was quite easy once I knew exactly which bolts to remove. The bolts that hold it in place are inside the wheel well. If you partially remove the front part of the plastic wheel well cover (using an allen wrench) you can get your hand behind the bumper conver. If you shine a light in there you will see a bolt sticking out, but that is NOT the one to remove. If you feel next to it, you will feel the head of another bolt. That is the one. Use a 10mm(I had to go to home depot to buy a 10mm wrench) wrench or socket wrench and remove it. Once you get it turning with the wrench, you can turn it with your fingers. There is another one on the other side of the bumper (one on passenger and one on driver side). Then remove all allen bolts along the bottom of the bumper cover. Finally, there are a few more just above the headlights. Lift the hood to see them. Lay down some towels or something so the bumper won't get scratched. Slowly pull the sides (there will be a kind of popping sounds, but that is normal). Pull the front part of the cover and it should come completely off. Don't pull the cover away from the car because there are wires connected to the side lights that are still attached to the bumper/cover. REMOVING THE HEADLIGHT ASSEMBLY: By now, from above, you removed the two bolts just above the headlights. There are two more underneath each headlight. Having a socket wrench will really help since the bolts are inset kind of deep. Once the last few bolts are removed, slowly remove the headlight assembly (at an angle). You will have to detach the wire connector (one) from behind each headlight. After the wire connector is detached, the whole assembly should come out pretty easy. GETTING TO THE BROKEN ADJUSTERS: You don't have to bake the headlights to remove the clear cover. You may actually melt some components inside. After trial and error, I took a heat gun (use a hairdryer on high heat if you don't have a heat gun) and warm up the edges of the cover. You can easily see where the clear cover meets the black housing. Once the edges are pretty hot, the adhesive that holds the two pieces together should be soft enough. Put the headlight assembly on a clean towel or something and slowly start pulling the clear cover off. Remember not to brake any of the clips that also hold the cover in place. If it doesn't pull apart, apply some more heat to the edges. It will take some effort, but it will come part. You can take the back covers off by pulling the metal wire clips that hold the soft rubbery cover. The other cover is just a round one that opens when turned. It is just amazing how expensive these Xenon lights are ($1200 each) but cheap [Oops!] plastic parts hold the key to proper working lights. REMOVING THE ADJUSTERS: The adjusters are easy to recognize, because they are a whitish/cream color. Remove all the broken pieces. Don't throw any piece away. You will need them. If your problems are like mine, the adjusters probably broke at the same part (the stems). There are two stems per headlight assembly. You will need to remove the parts that the stem broke off from. This can be done by taking another allen wrench or phillips screwdriver and turning the light beam adjusters. The beam adjusters are on top of the assembly. It looks like two gears or cogs. They are also white or cream in color. Very important..If you turn the adjusters the wrong way, you will crack the part you are trying to remove. I learned this the hard way. Put your fingers on the plastic piece you are trying to remove while turning the beam adjusters. You will know if it is coming out or going in deeper. Keep turning until the entire piece comes out. Do the same for the other one, if needed. All of the adjuster pieces were broken on mine...both adjusters on the top and the one that connects to the auto levelling motor(the thing that has a black ball at the end). PIECING BACK THE BROKEN ADJUSTER PIECES: Once you have collected all the broken pieces, it is a matter of how the pieces fit together. If you are pretty good at puzzles, your skills will come in handy. You want a really good glue to put the pieces back together. I first tried super glue/crazy glue, I had at home. I soon found out it is not strong enough. When I would test the strength of the bond, the pieces would snap back off. I went back to home depot and got some plastic epoxy. It came in a dual tube syringe that you squeeze out and mix. You don't need alot for the job. I don't know anything about epoxy, so I got the 7 minute kind. Glue the pieces back together then let it dry overnight. Go back and apply another thin layer of the epoxy over the pieces for extra strength. Let dry again. Put everything back together again in reverse order...adjusters, clear cover ( you may need to apply some heat again to soften the sticky adhesive), headlight assembly into car (connect the wires back), bumper cover, allen bolts and 10mm bolts. Once everything is put back, wait until nighttime then shine your your lights on the garage or something and adjust the beam angles using that allen wrench or phillip screwdriver. Those light beam adjusters can be access through the holes found on the metal plates above the headlight assemblies. I know this is very long, but this is from a guy who needs it said in laymens terms. It would ideal if I can found a machinist that is willing to make the adjuster pieces out of solid billet aluminum. If someone made these in their shop, they could make some cash! Please let me know if this helps you guys out.

New information on this process, I have the old

headlight on my bench. The adjuster is absurdly simple and absurdly cheaply made. The part that broke is molded white nylon. It can easily be removed from the back of the unit once out of the car. Disassembly of the headlight is not required. The actuating motor has to be removed, two torx screws, and then a smaller torx screw is removed to remove the remains of the adjuster joint. The broken bit will still be floating around the headlight somewhere if you are lucky.

The problem occurs because the white nylon joint becomes brittle. The motor actuator has a black nylon molded ball joint on the end that engages in a smei circular groove in the white adjuster joint, from the left as you look at the back of the headlight. The white part is keyed to mount only one way up. The ball cannot be inserted or removed except from the open left end of the grooved joint. When I pressed a bit too hard on the ballast on the end of the main beam the ball tried to come out of this white adjuster and split it.

Now, any ideas on what to use to fix the joint , other than JB Weld which is my idea at this point?

On mine it was the ball and socket self leveller

that broke.

I am not sure why there would need to be a second set of adjusters.

There are the normal fixed adjusters in the top of the light and then the slef levelling servo adjuster. What other adjuster would be required? The left to right adjustment found on normal headlights would not seem to be necessary but is this what seems to be breaking on others headlights?

Re: Fixing broken light adjusters

Gary V, mesh reinforcing will probably be a very good idea. there is room to apply epoxy layer, mesh layer then another epoxy layer. It will depend on what parts you are applying it to. Apply the mesh and epoxy to the outside of each piece. In other words, any sides that don't require the ball and socket to join. It is hard to explain without graphics. I have taken apart my headlights several times now. I had to take it apart for the third time this weekend because I didn't apply enough epoxy and one headlight adjuster and it broke again in the same place I originally epoxied together. I didn't have any mesh so after letting the pieces dry, I applied a couple of layers of epoxy over the whole thing except for the inside areas that were going to be joined by another ie: ball and socket joints. In addition, to hold certain fragile pieces together, I had to use paperclips (bent at angles to fit) to wrap around certain pieces. I had to get real imaginative.
The pieces that broke on mine were all three plastic adjusters (the part that holds the levelling motor socket, exactly like the pic Jagualar posted, and the two upper pieces that are used to make beam adjustments). In other words, all adjusting white pieces of plastic were chipped and broken. I will probably have to do it again in the near future, so I will take close up digital pics and post them. I have gotten pretty efficient in taking everything apart.

Re: Fixing broken light adjusters

Great discription of how to repair X type headlamp adjusters - I broke one at the top when replacing sidelight lamp - I managed to secure the reflector to the adjuster with super glue (two part araldite failed)it was very difficult with the unit still mounted in the car using a mirror to see into housing.
I thought gluing the adjuster to the reflector assembly would mean the adjuster could not be used but during the recent MOT the mechanic had a problem with the alignment and proceeded to use the adjuster and it worked ?? but unfortunately he could not correct the beam and was about to fail the MOT when I remembered a lever within the inside light housing which I had moved to gain a better view in the mirror when appying the glue, this lever appears to turn the headlamp projector lens changing the beam pattern which resolved the problem to the astonishment of the mechanic and to my relief at not having to have a complete new headlamp fitted for the MOT.
My guess is this lever changes the alignment for driving on the other side of the road, can anyone confirm this.

My complete repair costs were only about $10 total for the epoxy. I tried to to repair the plastic shafts with jb weld and quick steel. Both failed miserably but in different spots. Also, when the small ball shattered into a bunch of pieces I was lost of what to do. I had a container of screws sitting near me. So I grabbed a few to see if I could rebuild the ball. The screw heads were the same size and fit absolutely perfect with full motion as the ball. It has 2 different sizes(dont force). Be sure to match the correct screw for each adjuster side. I drilled the old shaft and put the screw in after it was cut down to size. Then wrapped it in jb weld and quick steel for strength. I did this with RH and LH headlights, all 4 clips. 1 clip was cracked right down the middle and had the screw part snapped off. I have pictures of the clip/screw/epoxy assemblies. Its not pretty looking but it works great. I live on rough roads and its very stable without vibrations

I bought a wrecked jag that needed a RH headlight and couldn't afford to buy new, used or even the $80 kit per side off of eBay. The replacement headlight was very cheap because it also had broken clips and the accident that mine was in broke the LH side as well. If anything, this can get you by until you can buy the kit.

EBay replacement adjusters

I had the same problem and installed the adjusters off EBay. They are expensive (you get what you pay for) but are well built/molded. If you try to epoxy the bits of plastic they will break somewhere else..

new headlight adjuster for jaguar x-type.

Hi jagular. i purchased a set of headlight adjuster from a guy on e-bay i paid £50 british pounds for the set i beleive it was money well spent. It was better than paying for a complete new unit. i have change my broken adjuster for the new ones i purchase off this guy on e-bay and they fit purfectly. when you bay them you will be given a set for each said of the car. I hope this has help everyone. PS I did not any PP. regards GERALD07

Originally Posted by jagular

headlight on my bench. The adjuster is absurdly simple and absurdly cheaply made. The part that broke is molded white nylon. It can easily be removed from the back of the unit once out of the car. Disassembly of the headlight is not required. The actuating motor has to be removed, two torx screws, and then a smaller torx screw is removed to remove the remains of the adjuster joint. The broken bit will still be floating around the headlight somewhere if you are lucky.

The problem occurs because the white nylon joint becomes brittle. The motor actuator has a black nylon molded ball joint on the end that engages in a smei circular groove in the white adjuster joint, from the left as you look at the back of the headlight. The white part is keyed to mount only one way up. The ball cannot be inserted or removed except from the open left end of the grooved joint. When I pressed a bit too hard on the ballast on the end of the main beam the ball tried to come out of this white adjuster and split it.

Now, any ideas on what to use to fix the joint , other than JB Weld which is my idea at this point?